Quora for PreMeds?

[brycepj]

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I've been on SDN for a while. Big fan. I've learned so much from it. But there are some things I don't like. Like having to scroll through tons of pages to find good answers. And never knowing who to trust and who to ignore.

So I've been thinking about putting my code skills to work and building a Quora-type site for premeds. It would allow you to up-and-down vote people's answers, search for questions from a single place, and refer you to related questions.

Anybody else think that's a good idea? How would you customize it for pre-meds?

PS-I know we could all just use Quora, but it seems like it would attract more engagement if it was a purely pre-med destination.

 

[red doctober]

Haha, planning a coup right on the site that is the target to be overthrown.

Also, there's this: http://www.reddit.com/r/premed

 

[kami333]

Why reinvent the wheel?

Pretty sure SDN runs vBulletin or some derivative, there are a number of addons/mods to rate posts, users, and such. Why not ask the site admins why they don't do any type of user or post rating system?

 

[mikomistars]

In...


















I'm kind of new here and always wanted to say that 🙂

 

[silverturtle]

Haha, planning a coup right on the site that is the target to be overthrown.

Also, there's this: http://www.reddit.com/r/premed

 

[Euxox]

Already exists: http://studentdoctor.net/answers/ (But nobody uses it)

 

[mcloaf]

Well, I for one can't think of any other forums where the reputation system is abused and is basically a circle jerk for regulars exchanging inside jokes...

 

[drscholls]

Well, I for one can't think of any other forums where the reputation system is abused and is basically a circle jerk for regulars exchanging inside jokes...

What you did there....I see it.

 

[RosettaStoned]

Lol

(see sig for rest)

 

[TheShaker]

It's been shown many times on Reddit that the upvote/downvote system turns sites into complete ****, especially when the number of users exceed ~10,000 users.

 

[mehc012]

You know what would take a lot less time? Spending a few hours reading through SDN to get the feel of the place. I mean, it's really not that difficult to figure out who's talking out of the wrong end. Or to use the search function. 'Like' and up/downvotes are just distracting. I cannot think of a single site where I've found them genuinely useful.

 

[Narmerguy]

Well, I for one can't think of any other forums where the reputation system is abused and is basically a circle jerk for regulars exchanging inside jokes...

Why reinvent the wheel?

Pretty sure SDN runs vBulletin or some derivative, there are a number of addons/mods to rate posts, users, and such. Why not ask the site admins why they don't do any type of user or post rating system?

Something like this was tried before. I don't know the specifics because I'm not sure if I was around when they tried it, but apparently it was everything you'd fear in using a voting system. People would just abuse the system, intentionally try to rack up the most downvotes, down-vote people because they agreed with them on other topics or hated their attitude--regardless of whether it's actually right, etc etc. It's not a very good system, and I wish people would just use the search function. It would solve >80% of the questions we see on here.

You know what would take a lot less time? Spending a few hours reading through SDN to get the feel of the place. I mean, it's really not that difficult to figure out who's talking out of the wrong end. Or to use the search function. 'Like' and up/downvotes are just distracting. I cannot think of a single site where I've found them genuinely useful.

It's useful on some sites where you need a clear-cut answer and the "grey-areas" don't matter as much. For example, when I have a coding question and I just want to know a reason to get around some error message I'm getting, it's nice to go to stackexchange and be able to read someone else with the same question and the #1 solution for solving it. Sure I can read more if I like, but for the most part I just want to solve that problem and be on to the next thing.